#bran the cat

[irlplasticlamb]

when the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

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[tell-them-the-north-remembers]

If there is one line I like to over-analyze in the ASoIAF books it is a rather famous thought that goes inside Cat's head before her death. As the steel is close to her throat Cat thinks "No, don’t, don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair." And this line and her entire inner monologue is absolutely heart-breaking but one thing I fixate on is the actual sentence itself.

"Ned loves my hair."

Anyone who has read the books knows that Cat holds contempt for the fact that except for Arya, she has failed to give Ned children who look like him. It is also one of the reasons she dislikes Jon so much, because the mother of Jon (who she assumes to be Ned's bastard son) has managed to give Ned a child that looks just like him while she, his lawfully wedded wife gave birth to five of his children only for four of them to come out looking exactly like her. Red hair, blue eyes. Unlike Jon (and Arya) who share Ned's dark hair and dark eyes.

And knowing that it is so interesting to me that Cat's last thought about Ned (and her last thought ever) was that Ned loves her hair.

Because Ned loved her, he loved her hair, he loved her the way she was. And every time he looked at Robb, Sansa, Bran and Rickon he saw the reflection of the woman he loved, while Cat was so upset that they weren't all reflections of the man she loved.

Every time Ned ran his fingers through their hair, he ran his fingers through the hair of the woman he loved. He never resented Cat for the fact that four of his children didn't look like him, he loved that they looked like their mother, again, the woman he loved so much. He loved that they had the same hair he loved on Cat, and judging by it being her last thought Cat also knew that Ned loved her hair (and the way she looked), whether she ever came to the realization that Ned was perfectly happy with the way their children looked at all, or if she realized after he was dead and it was too late, it is unclear. But all those years she beat herself up over nothing.

Ned loved her the way she was, Ned loved his children the way they were, when they looked like him and when they didn't. Because when they didn't look like him, they looked like the love of his life, his darling wife.

And if the books decide to go with R+L=J it also adds another layer to Cat and Ned's relationship. Because Jon's mother was always a woman she didn't know but was still competing with in her mind for Ned's love for all these years. Turns out she didn't even exist. Turns out she didn't need to feel inferior to the woman Ned loved enough to not even talk about with her, no need to feel bad about the fact that she was able to give Ned a child that looked like him while Cat "failed".

At the end of the day, all the voices in her head making her feel insecure in her marriage never needed to be there, because everything she thought of as a problem with her were not problems at all for Ned. He was perfectly happy with her and their children.

[melrosing]

you know how in hp all Harry and Ginny’s kids are named after like. his dead parents and his dead godfather and the various teachers he wants to remember. and for Ginny there’s maybe like one kid who gets Luna as a middle name for whatever that’s supposed to mean to Ginny idk

anyway nedcat kind of the same

[imjustapoorwayfaringgeek]

Starks 🤍🩶✨

a lot of red hair

[se7enthirds]

i’ve watched you with a thousand eyes and one

-

bran!!!!!!! 🤏🤏🤏

[mothers-mercy]

She knelt before the Mother. “My lady, look down on this battle with a mother’s eyes. They are all sons, every one. Spare them if you can, and spare my own sons as well. Watch over Robb and Bran and Rickon. Would that I were with them.”

Catelyn IV, ACOK

[wodania]

me talking about the majority of asoiaf characters: THAT IS A CHILD!!! AN INFANT!!! A FETUS!!!

[lycorim]

Half amused and half devastated at how differently Bran and Catelyn describe Robb growing a beard, like Bran’s semi-awed because Robb’s his big brother obviously and “omg he’s so old and mature wow he’s an adult now,,,” but then Catelyn comes into the war camp going all “look at you, growing a little beard!! :,) Mommy’s handsome boy is growing up so fast :,(” and you know Robb sees both as true, trapped in a liminal stage of youth he’ll never end up growing out of, despite how hard he tries to look it.

[fromtheseventhhell]

I really hate how people act like Jon becoming King is him "usurping" his siblings when that's an unfair stigma that's followed him his entire life for being a bastard. It just blows my mind that people ignore Jon's own thoughts and wishes on the topic. Well, guess what? Robb named him as his heir, he will have a legitimate claim to Winterfell, and he will be part of discussions on who will rule. Even without that, it's very likely that some of his siblings would support him as King. I just hate how the conversation around him becoming King is framed as some big betrayal.

[cola-fiend]

Catelyn Stark was going mad with grief after losing Ned. The Greyjoy boy wasn’t helping, prancing around her house like a hoochie

Is it catheon or thelyn? Either way, this ship has me in a chokehold

[ghastlywretch]

obsessed with how jaime looms like a spectre over the characters and the reader alike in agot and to an even greater extent in acok. you've actually witnessed him firsthand a few times with characters like jon, tyrion and sansa, but most of him is just the golden-haired man haunting bran's dreams, terrifying him, tyrion's brave, strong, impulsive brother who has to be saved, the kingslayer of the smallfolk, the one whose incest and kingslaying has brought down the wrath of the gods upon them, ned's jaime, who is vile and never to be trusted, not worthy of any empathy, the kingslayer that is more idea than person for the younger characters like jon, arya and sansa, the kingslayer that theon almost crossed blades with, his chance for glory (which...okay theon...) the kingslayer whose vile deeds don't erase the fact that he is a knight for stannis, the kingslayer who murdered daenerys' father. he's mentioned in so many conversations. cerwyn mentions him to bran and he feels like he's falling again, renly talks about him and cersei with catelyn in front of brienne, brienne and catelyn mention him in their conversation when they're going to riverrun, robb and tyrion and tywin are all thinking about him. grrm does such a good job at just establishing his presence and significance (not only in the narrative but in a meta way as well, a hint for what's to come) in this world, which just elevates that scene when cat and brienne go down to the dungeons to meet him to an insane level.

[sleazyjanet]

ned goes to king's landing modern au and his phone betrays him

[imjustapoorwayfaringgeek]

Cat and her kittens

[essektheylyss]

Rereading Game of Thrones for the first time since high school is wild, because most of what I remember from my friend group all reading them was which characters the boys made fun of, namely Sansa and Bran and Catelyn, and the girls defending them, and now I'm like, I knew we were correct even if we were partially being spitefully contrarian for the sake of it but it is really apparent in retrospect how correct we were.

[catofoldstones]

Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.  

Bran I, AGOT

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, definitely not suppos’dta be a leader during the war for dawn hmm